Pike/Citizen photo
Spaulding’s Justin Jewell, left, and Dover’s Brad Bishop battle for possession of the puck along the boards during Saturday night’s D-II game in Dover.

DOVER — The Spaulding High School hockey team has been good on the road this season and on the power play.

The Red Raiders needed both trends to continue Saturday night in order to beat arch-rival Dover for the second time this season.

And for the second time this year Spaulding rallied from a two-goal deficit to edge the Green Wave, 3-2, before a packed house at Dover Ice Arena.

“We can’t draw them up like that,” said Spaulding coach Paul George, “and as a coach I certainly don’t want them to go like that, but I’ll definitely take them. That was a hard-fought game from start to finish. We were fortunate to come out on top.”

The Red Raiders improved to 14-1-1 and likely solidified at least the No. 2 seed in the Division II playoffs with two games left in the regular season.

Dover fell to 9-5-1, hurting its home ice prospects in the process with three games remaining.

Spaulding, which trailed 2-1 entering the third period, scored two power-play goals, including the game winner by Zach Poisson that snapped a 2-all tie at 8:30 of the third.

“We were smart,” George said. “The thing I’m most proud about with the team is their discipline tonight. We didn’t take a lot of penalties and we didn’t caught up. We kept our eye on the prize. That’s what we’ve been preaching and they’re starting to buy into it.”

Junior captain Brent Phillips finished with two goals goal and an assist and set up Poisson’s redirect in front with a sharp centering pass from left wing that came after Dover was penalized for too many men on the ice.

Phillips was returning the favor after he converted Poisson’s centering feed for a power-play goal at 6:35 of the second period that put the Red Raiders on the board.

“That’s what good teams do,” Riker said. “They score on the power play and that’s what happened. They’re very poised with the puck. Phillips can put it away. They found him backdoor and he finished.”

With his team down 2-1, Phillips tied the game 14 seconds into the third when he tipped in a shot by defenseman Brian Chick. Brendan Colson also drew an assist after winning a faceoff in the Dover end.

“It’s really big,” Phillips said of the win, “considering we went 0-3 against them last year.”

Anthony Nicolella gave the Green Wave a 1-0 lead with 3:59 remaining in the first period.

Dover went up 2-0 at 1:54 of the second on a goal by Cam Crowley, whose one-timer from the slot eluded Spaulding goalie Derek Scott (18 saves).

Mitchell Welch set up the scoring play with a pass from behind the cage.

“Actually we were feeling pretty comfortable,” Phillips said of the deficit, “because we were down 2-0 the last time. We knew we could come back.”

“We just needed to start playing the way we can play,” George said. “The power-play goal helped take the tension off and from there we started to play good hockey. We’ve been a late-game team. We have confidence that we can play from behind. We’re not intimidated being down.”

With the Red Raiders leading 3-2, Phillips nearly had a hat trick with 3:13 left in the third but Ravenelle (26 saves) robbed him with the glove hand.

Phillips was in alone after deking a Dover defender to the ice with a toe drag in the right circle. Ravenelle’s save kept the Green Wave within one.

The win was the fifth straight for the Red Raiders, who rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat Bedford in their previous game.

“It’s disappointing,” Riker said, “because we had them twice and couldn’t put them away. We really needed this win for home ice in the playoffs, but I think that possibility still exists. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with other games.”